“Nosferatu” Is Easily One Of The Best Movies Of The Year, And Here Are 21 Interesting Facts About It

In case it hasn’t landed on your radar yet, Nosferatu is Robert Eggers’ latest high-brow horror film, and you should know it’s reaaaalllllly good. Like, everything from the cinematography to the costume and production design, and directing, is top-tier.

Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection

A gothic reimagining of the iconic 1922 silent film of the same name (which is itself an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Eggers’ Nosferatu is not only beautifully made, but also scary AF. Like, my stomach dropped so hard in several scenes that I thought I’d lose my dinner.

Aidan Monaghan /© Focus Features / Courtesy Everett Collection

The film stars Nicholas Hoult as Thomas Hutter, a young estate agent, Lily-Rose Depp as his cursed bride, and Bill Skarsgård in a horrifyingly wild performance as the vampire Count Orlok.

Focus Features /Courtesy Everett Collection

Rounding out the cast is Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney, and Willem Dafoe (who, ironically, was nominated for an Oscar for playing an actor cast as Count Orlock in the 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional telling about the making of the original Nosferatu film.)

And here are some very fascinating behind-the-scenes facts about the film I learned from the production notes:

FYI: There are no major spoilers ahead. But there are some small plot details mentioned.

1. Eggers actually wrote and performed a stage adaptation of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (the 1922 fim) with a classmate back when he was still in high school.

2. And, after the success of his first feature film, The Witch, in 2015, Eggers wrote a draft of Nosferatu with the intention of making it his next movie.

3. Before filming even began, Eggers wrote a novella with extensive backstories and scenes…

4. …and in writing this, Eggers discovered that he wanted to make Ellen’s (Depp), journey the “driving force” of the film.

5. Continuing his deep-dive, Eggers also did a lot of research into the occult and historical representations of vampires. In fact, he did so much research that his office was apparently filled with “hundreds of books” on those subjects.

6. Depp worked with a movement coach, Marie-Gabrielle Rotie, an expert in Japanese Butoh (a form of dance), in order to choreograph Ellen’s movements during her posessions.

7. To get a very specific and stylized “romantic moonlit” look, cinematographer Jarin Blaschke incorporated actual candlelight to light their scenes.

8. Filming took place in Prague, and they used several practical locations. Apparently, Eggers wanted to incorporate Prague’s architecture into the film.

9. The filmmakers also made a trip to Transylvania in Romania to shoot the exteriors of Hunedoara Castle (also known as Corvin Castle), which served as Orlok’s Castle in the film.

10. But they also built a TON of sets…60 to be precise, including five city blocks. (For comparison, the average movie builds maybe a dozen or less sets.)

11. And many of the sets were rigged to have moveable parts to accommodate the fancy camerawork in the film.

12. The sets had so much detail that you would never be able to see it all just watching the movie. For example, there was paper on a desk written as if it were a letter from Ellen.

13. Speaking of practical production techniques, the blood tears Ellen cries were real and not CGI. Makeup artist Traci Loader used an eye blood made specifically to create red tears.

14. The language Nosferatu uses to “speak” with Ellen (in her nightmares/hauntings) is called Dacian, which is a dead language.

15. While the film score features many obscure and ancient instruments, they actually custom-built instruments, too. One example is a toaca-like device (a percussion type of instrument) that was constructed by percussionist Paul Clarvis.

16. As part of their research for designing Count Orlok’s look, Eggers and special effects makeup artist David White researched the decay of flesh and bone using medical and historical research papers and books.

17. It can be hard to see, but you may notice that Orlok’s “vampire bite” is not the traditional fang look. Eggers, apparently, didn’t want the classic vampire look and instead wanted to go for a more “gnarled and slightly broken” look for the teeth.

18. Bill Skarsgård had to be in the makeup chair for three-and-a-half to four hours each time, with multiple people working on his head, and others working on his hands.

19. Some of the “animalistic” noises you hear Orlok make were created by recording the movement of stone. Supervising sound editor Damian Volpe explained, “I dragged a big hunk of granite around on the floor just to see what kind of sounds I could make.”

20. This is the fourth collaboration for Eggers with his core filmmaking team: production designer Craig Lathrop, cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, costume designer Linda Muir, and editor Louise Ford, who worked on all of Eggers’ previous films.

21. And, finally, you’ll probably find this funny/interesting, but Chris Columbus, aka the director of iconic family films like Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire, is a producer on the film.